Edward Berdoe
The Browning Cyclopædia: A Guide to the Study of the Works of Robert Browning
“Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas,
Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atram
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa supernè,
Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici?” etc.
is of far wider application than to the exigencies of an art of poetry; and those who carry their researches into the moral nature of mankind cannot do better than impress upon their minds, at the outset, that in the regions they explore they are to expect no monsters – no essentially discordant termination to any ‘Mulier formosa supernè.’ Infinitely and distinctly various as appear the shifting hues of our common nature when subjected to the prism of CIRCUMSTANCE, each ray into which it is broken is no less in itself a primitive colour, susceptible, indeed, of vast modification, but incapable of further division.20 Indolence, however, in its delight for broad classifications, finds its account in overlooking this; and among the results none is more conspicuous than the long list of apostates with which history furnishes us. It is very true, it may be admitted, that when we are informed by an old chronicler that ‘at this time Ezzelin changed totally his disposition,’ – or by a modern biographer that ‘at such a period Tiberius first became a wicked prince,’ – we examine too curiously if we consider such information as in reality regarding other than the act done and the popular inference recorded; beyond which it was no part of the writer to inquire. – Against all such conclusions I earnestly protest in the case of the remarkable personage whose ill-fated career we are now retracing. Let him be judged sternly, but in no unphilosophic spirit. In turning from the bright band of patriot brothers to the solitary Strafford – ‘a star which dwelt apart’ – we have to contemplate no extinguished splendour, razed and blotted from the book of life. Lustrous, indeed, as was the gathering of the lights in the political heaven of this great time, even that radiant cluster might have exulted in the accession of the ‘comet beautiful and fierce,’ which tarried a while within its limits ere it ‘darted athwart with train of flame.’ But it was governed by other laws than were owned by its golden associates, and impelled by a contrary, yet no less irresistible force, than that which restrained them within their eternal orbits, – it left them, never to ‘float into that azure heaven again.’” – John Forster’s Life of Strafford, in the “Cabinet Cyclopædia” (conducted by Dr. Lardner), pp. 228-9.
Notes. – Act I., Scene i. Pym, the great and learned champion of English liberty, was an intimate friend of Wentworth, and deeply felt his desertion of the popular cause. Sir Benjamin Rudyard was a prominent member of the Long Parliament. When the quarrel broke out between Charles and the Parliament, Rudyard quitted his parliamentary pursuits and joined Hampden and Pym’s party. He opposed the attainder of Strafford. He ultimately became anxious for a compromise between the King and the Commons; he acted, however, to the last with the patriots. Henry Vane, Sir, the younger, was a disciple of Pym, and was of considerable talents and equal fanaticism. He purloined from his father’s cabinet a very important document, which was used against Strafford on his trial. After the Restoration he was brought to trial and executed. Hampden, John, a gentleman of Buckinghamshire, quiet, courteous, and submissive; but with a correct judgment, an invincible spirit, and the most consummate address. In 1626 he was imprisoned for refusing to contribute towards the forced loan; he resisted the payment of ship-money. He threw himself heartily into the work of the Long Parliament, and commanded a troop in the parliamentary army. He was a great patriot and defender of the rights of the people. Denzil Hollis, Lord: “In 1629, when the Speaker refused to put to the vote Sir John Eliot’s remonstrance against the illegal levying of tonnage and poundage, and against Catholic and Arminian innovations, Hollis read the resolutions, and was one of two members who forcibly held the Speaker in the chair till they were passed. He was in consequence committed to the Tower. He was one of the ‘five members,’ as they were called, whom Charles accused of high treason in January 1642. He took no part in the proceedings against Strafford, who was his brother-in-law” (Imp. Dict. Biog.). The Bill of Rights: the third great charter of English liberties must not be confounded with “the Petition of Right.” “The Bill of Rights” was passed in the reign of William and Mary, in 1689. “much worn Cottington”: he was ambassador to Madrid. “maniac Laud”: Archbishop Laud was detested by the Puritans because he endeavoured to assimilate the doctrines and ritual of the Church of England to those of Rome. He was charged by Holles with high treason, and executed. Runnymead: the place where Magna Charta was signed. renegade: one faithless to principle or party; a deserter of a cause. Haman: see the Book of Esther. Haman resolved to extirpate the Jews out of the Persian empire, but Haman fell and Mordecai was advanced to his place. Ahitophel was a conspirator with Absalom against David, who prayed the Lord to turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness (2 Sam. xv. 31); whence the term “Ahitophel’s counsel.” League and Covenant: the “Solemn League and Covenant” was designed by the Scotch to carry out in their integrity the principles of the Reformation and to establish the Presbyterian in lieu of the Episcopal Church. Eliot: Sir John Eliot compared Buckingham to Sejanus in lust, rapacity and ambition, in the House of Commons, and seconded the motion for his impeachment. Eliot was sent to the Tower. “The Philistine”: the giant slain by David. “Exalting Dagon where the ark should be” (1 Sam. v.). Dagon was an idol, half man and half fish. He was worshipped by the Philistines. When they captured the “ark” from the Jews, it was placed in his temple, the idol fell, and the palms of his hands were broken off. scourge and gag: instruments of torture well understood in those days. “The Midianite drove Israel into dens” (Judges vi. 2): the Israelites for their sins were oppressed by Midian, and were compelled to hide from them in dens and caves of the mountains. Gideon: the Israelites prayed to God for deliverance from their enemies, and an angel sent Gideon, who destroyed Baal’s altar and delivered Israel (Judges vi.). Loudon: Scottish lord and covenanter; committed to the Tower for soliciting the aid of the king of France: he was sent to Scotland by Charles. Hamilton, Marquess of: sent by Charles to Scotland as commissioner to suppress the Covenant, he dared not land; was suspected of treason, and fled; was restored to the King’s favour, and became a leader of the royalists; was defeated by the parliamentary troops; fined £100,000, and executed. Joab: David, when dying, gave charge to Solomon to put his enemy Joab to death, which was done (1 Kings ii. 28-34). “No Feltons”: J. Felton assassinated Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and was executed. Gracchus: Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, the celebrated Roman tribunes, were after their death worshipped as gods, and their mother esteemed herself the happiest of Roman matrons in having given birth to such illustrious sons. The Petition of Right, the second great charter of English liberties, was directed against those grievances which Wentworth thus described in his speech in the third parliament: “the raising of money by loans, strengthened by commission, with unheard-of instruction; the billeting of soldiers by the lieutenants… Our persons have been injured both by imprisonment without law (the King exercised an absolute right to imprison any one without legal proceedings), and by being designed to some office, charge, and employment, foreign or domestic, as a brand of infamy and mark of disgrace” (Prof. Gardiner). Aceldama: “a field said to have lain south of Jerusalem, purchased with the bribe which Judas took for betraying his Master, and therefore called the field of blood; – sometimes used in figurative sense” (Webster’s Dict.). Nathaniel Fiennes was the second son of William Fiennes; he was a lawyer, and in 1640 sat in the House of Commons for Banbury. He was a rigid Presbyterian, and a member of nearly all Cromwell’s parliaments. Ship money: “An imposition formerly charged on the ports, towns, cities, boroughs and counties of England, for providing and furnishing certain ships for the king’s service. The attempt made by Charles I. to revive and enforce this imposition was resisted by John Hampden, and was one of the causes which led to the death of Charles. It was finally abolished” (Webster’s Dict.). “Wentworth’s influence in the North”: Wentworth represented Yorkshire in parliament, and had great influence in the north of England. – Scene ii. “Old Vane” was secretary of state and comptroller of the household under Charles I. Savill: George Savill, Marquis of Halifax (?). Holland, Earl of: raised forces against the parliament after espousing its cause against Charles; he was tried after the King’s death and executed. “Lady Carlisle was the daughter of the ninth Earl of Northumberland. In 1639 she had been for three years a widow. Her husband was James, Lord Hay, created successively Viscount Doncaster and Earl of Carlisle” (from Miss Hickey’s Strafford). Weston, Sir Richard, Chancellor of the Exchequer, made Earl of Portland; denounced by Sir J. Eliot as an enemy of the Commonwealth. “This frightful Scots affair”: Professor Gardiner shows that Strafford opposed peace with the Scots, supported the harshest measures, and urged the King to invade Scotland (Encyc. Brit., vol xxii., p. 586). “In this Ezekiel chamber”: in the eighth chapter of Ezekiel the prophet has a vision of the chambers of imagery where he saw “wicked abominations.” “The Faction,” a party acting in opposition to the constituted authority. – Act II., Scene i. “Subsidies,” says Blackstone, were taxes, not immediately on property, but on persons in respect of their reputed estates, after the nominal rate of 4s. in the pound for lands and 2s. 8d. for goods. cockatrice: “The basilisk; a fabulous serpent, said to be produced from a cock’s egg brooded by a serpent. Its breath, and even its look, is fabled to be fatal” (Webster’s Dict.). Star Chamber: “The origin of this court is derived from the most remote antiquity. Its title was derived from the Camera Stellata or Star Chamber, an apartment in the king’s palace at Westminster, in which it held its sittings; it exercised an illegal control over the ordinary courts of justice, and in the reign of Charles I. became very tyrannical and offensive as a means of asserting the royal prerogative. It was abolished by the Long Parliament” (Student’s Hume, p. 358). – Scene ii. The George: a figure of St. George on horseback, worn by knights of the Garter. A masque, a species of dramatic entertainment. Fletcher and Ben Jonson wrote many masques which were acted at Court. The most beautiful work of this kind is the Comus of Milton. Act III., Scene i. —The new Parliament: “The Long Parliament,” which met Nov. 3rd, 1640; it voted the House of Lords as useless. The Great Duke: Buckingham. – Scene ii. Windebank, one of the secretaries of state, was impeached by the Commons for treason, and escaped to France. “sly, pitiful intriguing with the Scots”: “Charles, in his eagerness to conclude the negotiation, was induced to concede many points which he would otherwise have refused” (Lingard, Hist. Eng., vol. vii., p. 232). “The Crew and the Cabal”: the “crew” was a number of people associated together; the “cabal” a number of persons united to promote their private views in church or state by intrigue. What is usually understood by the “cabal” was a name given to a ministry under Charles II., the initial letters of the names of its members forming the word cabal. Mainwaring, Dr., a clergyman who preached in favour of the general loan. He was impeached by the Commons. Goring, Colonel: he was Governor of Portsmouth, was an officer of distinguished merit, and devoted to the King. – Scene iii., rufflers, bullies, swaggerers. “Are we in Geneva?”: Calvin’s city, where all sorts of puritanical restrictions were enforced against harmless amusements as well as breaches of morality. St. John, Oliver: St. John was Solicitor-General; he was one of the leaders of the Independents. stockishness, hardness, stupidity, blockishness (rare). Maxwell, Usher of the Black Rod. He received Strafford as his prisoner, after his impeachment, and required him to deliver his sword. – Act IV., Scene i. Hollis: Strafford was his brother-in-law, and so he took no part in the proceedings against him. “A blind moth-eaten law”: Strafford said on his trial that “it was two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this crime.” – Scene ii. “Prophet’s rod”: “Moses took the rod of God in his hand” (Exod. iv. 20). Haselrig, Sir Arthur: was one of the five members of the House of Commons whom Charles tried to impeach. Laud, Archbishop: had been impeached by Sir Harry Vane, and was a prisoner in the Tower. Bill of attainder: The Student’s Hume says (p. 399): “The student should bear in mind the difference between an Impeachment and a Bill of Attainder. In an impeachment the Commons are the accusers, and the Lords alone the judges. In a bill of attainder the Commons are the judges as well as the Lords; it may be introduced in either House; it passes through the same stages as any other bill; and when agreed to by both Houses it receives the assent of the Crown.” – Act V., Scene ii. “O bell’ andare”: “The Italian boat-song is from Redi’s Bacco, long since naturalised in the joyous and delicate version of Leigh Hunt” (R. B.) Term, or Terminus: the Roman god of bounds, under whose protection were the stones which marked boundaries. Genius: the Italian peoples regarded the Genius as a higher power which creates and maintains life, assists at the begetting and birth of every individual man, determines his character, tries to influence his destiny for good, accompanies him through life as his tutelary spirit, and lives on in the Lares after his death. (Seyffert’s Dict. Class. Ant.) “Garrard – my newsman”: was a clergyman who, when Wentworth went to Ireland as Lord Deputy, in 1633, was instructed to furnish him with news and gossip. (Miss Hickey.) Tribune: in ancient Rome, a magistrate chosen by the people to protect them from the oppression of the patricians or nobles. Sejanus, Ælius: distinguished himself at the court of Tiberius, who made a confidant of this fawning favourite, who made himself the darling of the senate, and the army. He was commander of the prætorian guards, and used every artifice to make himself important. He became practically head of the empire. He ridiculed the Emperor by introducing him on the stage; Tiberius then ordered him to be accused before the senate; he was subsequently imprisoned and strangled, A.D. 31. Richelieu, Cardinal: fomented the first commotions in Scotland, and secretly supplied the Covenanters with money and arms. He was prime minister to Louis XIII. of France. “A mask at Theobald’s”: Theobald’s, in Hertfordshire, was a beautiful house, inherited by Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, from his father, William Cecil, Lord Burleigh. King James liked this house so much that, in 1607, he offered Robert Cecil the Queen’s dower-house at Hatfield in exchange for it. Several of Ben Jonson’s masques were written for performance at Theobald’s. (Prof. Morley.) Prynne: William Prynne was a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, of a morose and gloomy disposition, and a thorough-going Puritan; he particularly hated theatres, dancing, hunting, card playing, and Christmas festivities. He wrote a great book against all these things, which he called Histrio-Mastix. He was indicted as a libeller of the Queen, condemned to stand in the pillory, to lose both his ears, to pay £5000 fine to the King, and to be imprisoned for life. “Strafford shall take no hurt”: Charles had said to Strafford, “Upon the word of a king you shall not suffer in life, honour, or fortune.” “Put not your trust in princes”: Psalm cxlvi. 3. Wandesford: Sir Christopher Wandesford was Master of the Rolls, and Privy Councillor in Ireland, and had been deputy there during Strafford’s absence. He was an intimate friend of Strafford’s, and is said to have died of grief at hearing of Strafford’s arrest. (Miss Hickey’s Strafford.) Radcliffe, Sir George: was appointed by Strafford guardian of his children; he was charged by Pym with treason. Balfour: Lieutenant of the Tower. “Too late for sermon at St. Antholin’s”: the Government had appropriated the Church of St. Antholin to the use of the Scotch commission. (Miss Hickey.) Billingsley: Balfour was desired by the King to admit Captain Billingsley and one hundred men to the Tower to effect Strafford’s escape. (Miss Hickey’s notes.) “I fought her to the utterance”: the last or utmost extremity – the same as Fr. à outrance. “David not more Jonathan”: were inseparable friends. The allusion is to David the psalmist and Jonathan the son of Saul. David’s lamentation at the death of Jonathan was never surpassed in pathos and beauty. (2 Sam. i. 19-27.) “His dream – of a perfect church.” Laud wished to make the Church of England “Catholic”; he endeavoured to assimilate its doctrines and ceremonies to those of the Catholic Church, ignoring the fact that “the Tudor settlement” was Protestant. Laud desired to appropriate all that to him appeared valuable in the Roman Catholic system, and to reject all that to him seemed objectionable. His “perfect church” was, as Browning puts it, “a dream.”
Summum Bonum. (Asolando, 1889.) A Latin phrase meaning the chief or ultimate good. “In ethics it was a phrase employed by ancient philosophers to denote that end in the following and attainment of which the progress, perfection and happiness of human beings consist. Cicero treated of the subject very fully in his De Finibus.” (Encyc. Dict.) Concentration is the key-note of the poem: in the honey-bag of one bee there is the breath and bloom of a year; in a single gem is represented all the chemistry of nature, from the condensation of the gases which went to form the earth; in the beauty of a single pearl is all the wonder of the sea, just as in a lump of coal are the imprisoned sun-rays of prehistoric forests. But truth and trust are brighter and purer than gems and pearls; in the love of a young girl Mr. Browning sees the concentration of the brightest truth and purest trust in the universe, so holy a thing to him is love. The Summum Bonum of St. Augustine is, of course, the true, ultimate good of man – the Love of God – of which the love of the purest of mankind is but a dim reflection.
Sun, The. (Ferishtah’s Fancies, 5.) Some one told one of Ferishtah’s pupils that it had been reported that “God once assumed on earth a human shape,” and he desired to know how the strange idea arose. Ferishtah replied that in days of ignorance men took the sun for God. “Let it be considered as the symbol of the Supreme,” said the Dervish. “There must be such an Author of life and light somewhere: let us suppose the sun to be that Author. This ball of fire gives us all we enjoy on earth, and so inspires us with love and praise. If we eat a fig we praise the planter; and so on up to the sun, which gathers to himself all love and praise. The sun is fire, and more beside. Does the force know that it gives us what it does? Must our love go forth to fire? If we must thank it, there must be purpose with the power – a humanity like our own. Power has no need of will or purpose; and no occasion for beneficence when all that is, so is and so must be. As these qualities imply imperfection, let us ‘eject the man, retain the orb,’ and then ‘what remains to love and praise?’ We cannot be expected to thank insentient things. No! man’s soul can only be moved by what is kindred soul: man’s way it receives good; man’s way it must make acknowledgment. If man were an angel, his love and praise, right and fit enough now, would go forth idly. Man’s part is to send love forth, even if it go astray.” “But,” says the objector, “man is bound by man’s conditions, can only judge as good and right what his faculty adjudges such: how can we then accept in this one case falsehood for truth? We lack an union of fire with flesh; but lacking is not gaining: is there any trace of such an union recorded?” Ferishtah replies, “Perhaps there may be; perhaps the greatly yearned-for once befell; perhaps the sun was flesh once.” The pupil demands “An union inconceivable once was fact?” The Dervish replies, “There is something pervading the sun which it does not consume: is it not fitter to stand appalled before a conception unattainable by man’s intelligence?” Firdausí, in the Sháh Námeh, records that Húsheng was the first who brought out fire from stone; and from that circumstance he founded the religion of the fire-worshippers, calling the flame which was produced the light of the Divinity. Húsheng was the second king of the Peshadian dynasty; from his time the fire faith seems to have slept till the appearance of Zerdusht, in the reign of Gushtasp, many centuries afterwards, when Isfendiyár propagated it by the sword. After Húsheng had discovered fire by hurling a stone against a rock, thereby producing a spark, which set light to the herbage, he made an immense fire, and gave a royal entertainment, calling it the Feast of Siddeh. The lyric explains that the divine element of fire is enshrined in the earthly flint when the spark escapes; the relationship is difficult to remember. So God was once incarnate in the form of man; and this some find it as hard to believe.
Tab. (Ned Bratts.) Tabitha Bratts, who was converted by John Bunyan, and who went with her husband to the Chief Justice at the assizes, asking to be hanged, and whose request was favourably entertained.
Tale, A. The Epilogue to the Two Poets of Croisic is included in the second series of Selections under this title.
Taurello Salinguerra. (Sordello.) His name, says Mr. W. M. Rossetti, may be translated as “Bullock Sally-in-war,” or “Dash-into-fight.” He belonged to the family of the Torelli, one of the two leading families of Ferrara. He married Sofia, a daughter of Eccelin the Monk, and he became the ruler of his native city. He was the right-hand man of Eccelin, and also of his son. The great authority on this character is Muratori (Annali d’ Italia, compilati da Lodovico Antonio Muratori). Mr. W. M. Rossetti read a paper to the Browning Society in November 1889 on “Taurello Salinguerra,” and I am indebted to this valuable essay for the following dates and particulars concerning this interesting character. He was born about the year 1160. In 1200, when he was head of the Ghibelline faction in Ferrara, he suddenly assailed the town of Argenta with the Ferrarese army, and having taken it, sacked it. In 1205 the head of the Guelf faction, both in Ferrara and the March of Verona, was Azzo VI., Marquis of Este. Naturally they quarrelled, and Azzo took the castle of La Fratta from Salinguerra and dismantled it. This was the beginning of the many dissensions between them. In 1207 Azzo VI. was compelled by Eccelino da Onara and others to retire from Verona. Then it was that Salinguerra, head of the Ghibellines in Ferrara, declaring himself the intimate friend of Eccelino, expelled from that city all the adherents of Marquis Azzo; and, leaving no room for him, began to act as Lord of Ferrara. In 1208 Marquis Azzo VI. re-established himself in Verona. Reaching Ferrara with an army, he expelled Salinguerra. In 1209 Salinguerra re-entered Ferrara, stripped Azzo VI. of Este of its dominion, and sent his partisans into exile. In 1210, the Emperor Otho IV. professing that the March of Ancona belonged to the empire, Azzo obtained the investiture of it from the Emperor. Probably at this time peace was re-established between Azzo VI. and Salinguerra, the competitors for the lordship of Ferrara. In 1213 Aldrovandino, Marquis of Este and Ancona, succeeded his father Azzo VI. and continued to hold, along with Count Richard of San Bonifazio, the dominion of Verona, where he was created Podestà in this year. He had contests with Salinguerra in Ferrara. In 1215 Aldrovandino, Marquis of Este, died, and was succeeded by Azzo VII., a minor. In 1221 Azzo VII. and his adherents assailed Salinguerra at Ferrara, and forced him to abandon the city, and consigned the palace of Salinguerra to the flames. After mediation, the expelled men returned to their homes. In 1222 the Ghibelline cause prevailed at Ferrara: Azzo and the Guelfs had to leave the city. He collected an army at Rovigo, and returned to Ferrara. Salinguerra, a crafty fox, made peace, for fear the people should turn against him. The peace was only a trap, however, by which to catch Azzo. In 1224 Azzo VII. returned to lay siege to Ferrara. The astute Salinguerra sent embassies to Count Richard of San Bonifazio, to induce him, with a number of horsemen, to enter Ferrara under pretext of concluding a friendly pact. But on entering he was at once made prisoner, with all his company; and therefore the Marquis of Este, disappointed, retired from the siege. Enraged at this result, Marquis Azzo proceeded to the siege of the castle of La Fratta, a favourite stronghold of Salinguerra, and starved it into submission. Salinguerra complained of this to Eccelino da Romana, his brother-in-law, and they both studied more assiduously than ever how best to crush the Guelfs, of which the Marquis of Este was chief. In 1225 the Lombard League procured the release of Count Richard, who returned to Verona; but he was expelled, when he took refuge in Mantua. He ultimately returned to Verona. In 1227 Eccelino the younger was established in Verona, and Count Richard again expelled. In 1228 Eccelino da Onara, father of Eccelino da Romana and of Alberic, had become a monk, and led the life of a hypocrite, finally showing himself to be a Paterine heretic. In 1230 Verona was in trouble: the Ghibellines raised a riot and imprisoned Count Richard; Salinguerra was made Podestà. In 1240 Pope Gregory IX. incited the Lombards and the Marquis of Este to besiege Ferrara. The Doge of Venice attended in person; the Mantuans concurred, as also did Alberico da Romana. After some months peace was proposed, and Salinguerra came to the camp of the confederates to ratify them. Salinguerra was entrapped, and was transferred as a prisoner to Venice; where, treated courteously, he ended his days in holy peace; and the House of Este, after so many years, re-entered Ferrara.
Templars. The poem The Heretic’s Tragedy deals with the suppression of the order of the Knights Templars.
Theocrite. (The Boy and the Angel.) The boy who wishes to praise God “the Pope’s great way,” and who leaves his common task, and is replaced by the angel Gabriel. As neither boy nor angel please God in their changed positions, each returns to his appropriate sphere.
“The Poets pour us wine.” (Epilogue to Pacchiarotto.) These words are the beginning of the Epilogue named, and are quoted from a poem of Mr. Browning’s entitled Wine of Cyprus, the last verse but one, the last line of which is “And the poets poured us wine.”
“There’s a Woman like a Dewdrop.” (A Blot in the ’Scutcheon.) The song in Act I., Scene iii., begins with this line. It is sung by Earl Mertoun as he climbs to Mildred Tresham’s chamber.
“The Year’s at the Spring.” (Pippa Passes.) The song which Pippa sings as she passes the house of Ottima, and thereby brings conviction to her lover Sebald.
Thorold, Earl Tresham. (A Blot in the ’Scutcheon.) The brother of Mildred Tresham, who challenges Mertoun, her lover, on his way to a stolen interview with his sister, and kills him, thinking he has disgraced the family.
Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kader. (1842.) The Metidja is an extensive plain near the coast of Algeria, “commencing on the eastern side of the Bay of Algiers, and stretching thence inland to the south and west. It is about sixty miles in length by ten or twelve in breadth” (Encyc. Brit.). Algiers was conquered by the French in 1830; but, after the conquest, constant outbreaks of hostilities on the part of the natives occurred, and in 1831 General Bertherene was despatched to chastise the rebels. Later in the same year General Savary was sent with an additional force of 16,000 men for the same purpose. He attempted to suppress the outbreaks of hostilities with the greatest cruelty and treachery. These acts so exasperated the people against their new ruler that such tribes as had acquiesced in the new order of things now armed themselves against the French. It was at this time that the world first heard of Abd-el-Kader. He was born in 1807, and was a learned and pious man, greatly distinguished amongst his people for his skill in horsemanship and athletic sports. He now rapidly collected an army of ten thousand men, marched to Oran and attacked the French, who had taken possession of the town; but was repulsed with great loss. He was so popular with his people that he had little difficulty in recruiting his forces, and he made himself so dangerous to the French that they found it expedient to offer him terms of peace, and he was recognised as emir of the province of Mascara. The peace did not last long, and hostilities broke out, leading to a defeat of the French in 1835. Constant troubles were caused the French by the opposition of Abd-el-Kader, and reinforcements on a large scale were sent against him from France. After varying fortunes, Abd-el-Kader was at last reduced to extremities, and was compelled to hide in the mountains with a few followers; at length he gave himself up to the French, and was imprisoned at Pau, and afterwards at Amboise. He afterwards obtained permission to remove to Constantinople, and from thence to remove to Damascus. The poem describes an incident of the war which took place in 1842, when the Duke d’Aumale fell upon the emir’s camp and took several thousand prisoners, Abd-el-Kader escaping with difficulty.
